Masking with faces in central visual field under a variety of temporal schedules

•We describe masking in central visual field with faces.•We use both backward and common onset masking schedules.•We explore the effects of interrupting a common onset trailing mask.•We show how both forms of masking can be predicted with the same model.

With a few exceptions, previous studies have explored masking using either a backward mask or a common onset trailing mask, but not both. In a series of experiments, we demonstrate the use of faces in central visual field as a viable method to study the relationship between these two types of mask schedule. We tested observers in a two alternative forced choice face identification task, where both target and mask comprised synthetic faces, and show that a simple model can successfully predict masking across a variety of masking schedules ranging from a backward mask to a common onset trailing mask and a number of intermediate variations. Our data are well accounted for by a window of sensitivity to mask interference that is centered at around 100 ms.